I am appalled by the continued efforts by right-wing conservatives to manufacture lies, rally ignorant supporters and oppose every great thing that President Obama was elected to do.
The latest campaign to denigrate the President’s message to schoolchildren, a message that he has not yet given, is repulsive. Disrespectful to the office. Damaging to children, who now think it is okay to ignore remarks about doing well in school, setting goals and achieving something in life. Do these people really think that kids don’t model behavior?
Every four minutes, one high school student decides to drop out of school. The graduation rate for the country…that is, kids who complete school…is just 69.2 percent. Interestingly, of the five to six states who will not air the speech on Tuesday, three of them are below the average. In fact, one of them, Georgia, can be proud of the most drop-outs in the nation. Florida, with its vociferous GOP leader, comes close to the bottom, with a whopping 59 percent of teenagers getting a diploma. Woohoo. Make Mama proud.
Here in Texas, also on the “Oh my God he’s a Socialist don’t show the speech, and he’s black, too” list…67 percent of high school kids actually finish, still under the embarrassingly low national average. And in Dallas, we just learned that we are on the top of one very important list…the most repeat teenage pregnancies in the country. Yay for Dallas. Such distinction.
I would venture to say that the kids who drop out of school and have babies do not have much parental supervision at home. The ones who do have guidance at home probably don’t need to hear the speech; they hear it every day at the dinner table. Though hearing the message another time, from our President, is hardly a bad thing. The speech could make the most impact on the first group, though….I’d be curious if those parents, if they can be found, would really mind if someone stepped in to help.
Pamela Gwyn Kripke 
Thank you. I wish I had written this.
Thank you for reading, Brenda. It is so maddening.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
For saying what needs to be said.
You are welcome. Thank you for reading.
This was so beautifully and succinctly put, it is exactly how I have been feeling about this! Thanks for posting it.
Thanks for saying it. I too am a New Yorker in Dallas (just moved here in June), and the behavior of the school districts here is really challenging my strong belief in the value of public education. Certainly public education interested in the education of the public is good. But maybe not when taken over by people who are either right-wing radicals themselves or too scared of the possibility of a complaining parent.
I also ended up here because of your comment on Lisa Belkin’s column today–thanks for htat too.
Those parents don’t know they really need any help. They’re helpless and hopeless.
But you have to feel sorry for the kids.